Walk on the Wild side

In preparation of the next meeting of Books on Tap, I flipped open "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed to continue where I had left off. Ironically, chapter 13's title was, "The Accumulation of Trees." Seeing these words splayed across the page on the evening that Nor'easter Athena was gracing us with her presence was a little unsettling, but, tossing anxiety aside, I continued the journey.

After losing her mother, divorcing her husband, and experimenting with heroin in a new relationship, Strayed comes to the realization that she has to do something drastic to reclaim her life. In the combined spirit of Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love," and Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods,""Wild" takes readers along on the author's solo trek of the entire length of the Pacific Crest Trail. From the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State, she begins her trip with absolutely no idea what she has gotten herself into, but, as we follow her path, it's clear that she has burrowed into the valleys of her grief, and come out of it, realizing the depths of her strength.